The Legislature's budget-writing committee is recommending ending Maine's free community college program after this year's class of graduating high school seniors.
Earlier this year, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills had proposed making permanent Maine's program of allowing recent high school grads to take up to two years of community college for free. But Democrats on the Legislature's Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee budget-writing voted late last week to wind down the popular program.
Instead, the budget proposal would provide $20 million to the Maine Community College System to continue paying the educational costs for current participants and for members of the Class of 2025.
On Saturday, Maine Community College System President David Daigler expressed his "deep disappointment" with the decision in a letter to the system's board of trustees.
"The budget will now go to the House and Senate early next week, and from there to the governor’s desk," Daigler wrote. "It is highly unlikely there will be any changes to the Free College funding at this point, but we will continue to closely monitor the legislation and work in collaboration with the governor’s office . . . Ultimately, the committee’s vote reflects the state’s challenging financial situation, which made it hard to get support even though Free College is a very popular, effective program that directly benefits Maine families, students, and employers."
Maine's community colleges have seen record enrollment in recent years in part because of the tuition-free program. The program has also been credited with making college more accessible to a wider spectrum of Maine residents. As a result, the initiative has enjoyed broad, bipartisan support in Augusta.
Lawmakers are likely to debate the decision to eliminate the free community college as well as a host of other potentially controversial items, including increasing the tobacco tax by $2 per pack of cigarettes and adding the sales tax to video and audio streaming services. Lawmakers are racing to wrap up their work by Wednesday.
